In this week’s second edition of Minor Happenings, the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at the suddenly hot performance from little known shortstop prospect Ivan Castillo. He breaks him down as a prospect, explains his value, where he needs work and what his future holds. He also provides comments from Ross Atkins on new pickups Zach Walters and James Ramsey plus what the Indians are working on with Zach McAllister in Triple-A. He also provides all the details on the playoff races for all six stateside affiliates, insight and info on players like Joe Wendle, Jerrud Sabourin and Cameron Hill, and much more.

he Carolina Mudcats secured two important wins thanks to early leads and quality pitching in both games of a double header against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on Wednesday night. The victories over the Pelicans (29-23, 73-47) bring Carolina (25-26, 54-64) within 3.5 games of the division leaders as the 2014 campaign winds down. After earning a close win in game one, the Mudcats found themselves in another tight game with the Pelicans. Strong pitching and a late run proved to be the difference in the 6-5 win.

A rainy spell throughout the Carolinas put a damper on the Carolina Mudcats week, as the team went just 2-3 with two games being postponed. Carolina is still very much in the playoff race with the first half division champion Pelicans once again in the driver’s seat and the Winston Salem Dash just one-half game ahead of the Mudcats for the final playoff spot. The IBI's Zach Francis recaps the week that was for the Mudcats and had a chance to sit down and talk with Alex Monsalve about his season.

In this week's first installment of Minor Happenings, the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at the development that lefty Thomas Pannone is making out in Arizona. There is a lot to like about him and Tony runs down his stuff, what he is working on and where he is making strides. Tony also provide lots of comments from the front office on players at Double-A Akron and High-A Carolina such as Elvis Araujo, Yandy Diaz, Ryan Merritt, Ben Heller and others, and provide lots of insight into the development of Justin Brantley, the plans for Nick Maronde and much more.

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans doubled up the Carolina Mudcats in hits ten to five Sunday as they claimed the series sweep with a 5-1 victory. Carolina starter Cole Sulser kept the Mudcats in the game with a solid pitching effort, but Christopher Bostick put the game out of reach in the bottom of the seventh with a three-run homer off newly-acquired Michael Clevinger.

The WAR Room is back again, bringing you the 2014 advanced stats for every Cleveland minor leaguer. After looking at the hitters last week, today we focus on the pitchers, including a look at what the Angels are getting in Vinnie Pestano. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks down Pestano's encouraging minor league performance and the rest of the stats from around the organization as he takes you into The WAR Room.

Mother Nature brought a hault to the Carolina Mudcats' middle game with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans in the 11th inning on Saturday night. The teams were stalemated at 2-2 when persistent rains forced the suspension.

Cody Anderson put together a pretty good comeback performance Friday night, returning to the mound and putting up four perfect innings. Up in Columbus, Giovanny Urshela was not on the comeback trail, but he was continuing to put up big stats in his breakout season. Join Jim Piascik as he recaps Anderson and Urshela's nights and the rest of the action in the organization as he takes you Around the Farm.

An early deficit proved too much for the Carolina Mudcats to overcome Friday as they fell to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans 5-1 at Five County Stadium. The Mudcats found themselves in a hole early as Myrtle Beach took the lead against Carolina starter Adam Plutko in the top of the first. With two away and men on the corners, Nick Williams put the Pelicans ahead with a double to right as Chris Garia scored easily. Myrtle Beach grabbed another on the play thanks to Yhoxian Medina’s error attempting to tag Williams at second as the ball escaped into centerfield allowing Preston Beck to put the Pelicans up 2-0.

In this week’s Minor Happenings, the IBI's Tony Lastoria takes a look at the surging Bobby Bradley out in Arizona and talks about how “special” he looks and why the Indians are excited about him. He also looks into the strong season to date from lefty Sean Brady, the suddenly red hot Francisco Miguel in Arizona, the quality season Duke von Schamann has put forth, provides tons of comments from the front office on players at Double-A Akron like Will Roberts, Jordan Smith, Anthony Gallas, Shawn Armstrong, Joe Colon and more!

James Ramsey did not get off to the best start in his Cleveland career, but he did his best to erase those first five games Thursday night. Meanwhile, farther south, Logan Vick continued his Carolina renaissance as he keeps benefiting from some good fortune after some wretched BABIP luck earlier in the season. Finally, even farther south and out to the west, Sicnarf Loopstok did his best to force a season's worth of performance into two games. Join Jim Piascik as he recaps all this and much more as he takes you Around the Farm.

A five-run fifth inning powered the Carolina Mudcats to a 6-4 victory against the Frederick Keys Thursday at Harry Grove Stadium. Jeremy Lucas opened the scoring for Carolina in the visitor’s half of the fifth with his team-leading 12th home run of the season, a two-run shot to pull the Mudcats out of an early hole.

No matter how many times it is said, patience is really the name of the game when it comes to prospects. Even when it comes to a second round pick like Mitch Brown, jumping ship after fewer than two full professional seasons makes no sense. Brown may not be a finished product, but most prospects are not; otherwise they would be in the major leagues. Prospects in Brown's position are looking for growth and he has definitely shown that this year. Join Jim Piascik as he recaps Brown's dominant outing, LeVon Washington's offensive outburst, and much more as he takes you Around the Farm.

The Carolina Mudcats piled on 11 runs in a eight-run route of the Frederick Keys. Carolina Starter Ryan Merritt tossed six innings of two-run ball to earn his 11th win of the year. Merritt has recorded a 2.61 ERA so far this season. Eight of nine Mudcats hitters tallied at least one hit in the game, while five different Carolina players had multi-hit outings.

It was a difficult week for the Carolina Mudcats, as the team went just 1-5, closing the week on a five-game skid. With the difficult week, the team fell to 21-23 in the second half and 2.5 games behind Winston Salem in the Carolina League’s Southern Division. The IBI's Zachary Francis recaps the week that was for the Mudcats and also sat down with reliever Jacob Lee to talk about his role change...

The Carolina Mudcats fell to the Frederick Keys by a score of 7-3 on rainy Tuesday night at Harry Grove Stadium. An unrelenting stream of hits from the Keys’ hitters paved the way for a quality home win for the team at the bottom of the Northern Division. Frederick totaled sixteen hits off of five Carolina pitchers in just eight innings. Meanwhile, the Keys pitchers held the Mudcats to just three runs off of eight hits.

The WAR Room is back again, bringing you the 2014 advanced stats for every Cleveland minor leaguer. After looking at the pitchers last week, today we focus on the hitters. In particular, Jim Piascik focuses on the success Francisco Lindor and Erik Gonzalez have found since their respective promotions to Columbus and Akron. Join Jim as he goes in-depth on the advanced stats for Cleveland's minor leaguers and takes you into The WAR Room.

Fielding miscues cost the Carolina Mudcats dearly Friday as they fell to the Potomac Nationals 4-2 on a wet evening at Five County Stadium. A Yandy Diaz throwing error brought in two unearned runs as the P-Nats did most of their damage in a three-run top of the third.

The trade deadline has come and gone with Cleveland adding to two interesting prospects to their farm system. James Ramsey and Zach Walters will make their organizational debuts in the coming days, but on Thursday, the stage was set for two players on the opposite ends of the prospect spectrum; one at the beginning and one near the end. Join Jim Piascik as he breaks down Bobby Bradley's season in the Arizona League, Adam Miller's shutdown outing in Akron, and much more as he takes you Around the Farm.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!